Through Students' Eyes - Picasso
Quite a few students wrote outstanding assignments about different styles and artists. The best ones will be shared here. Enjoy.
E. K. was inspired by a Picasso painting.
Picasso- Acrobat on a Ball
(Source: https://www.wikiart.org/en/pablo-picasso/girl-on-the-ball-1905)
The picture was painted at the end of Picasso’s Blue Period, but little signs of the beginning of the Rose Period are visible. The two main figures are immensely different. The lines are slightly blurry, which makes the painting mysterious. The brushstrokes are mainly visible. It was painted with oil on canvas.
Picasso lived in Paris when he painted this artwork, and he often went to Cirque Medrano, a circus which was located near his studio in the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre. Young artists like him often went to the circus then. They were fascinated by the complexity and magic of the shows, and the colourful crowds of people. The painting reminds me of a film titled ‘Aglaja’ which introduces the enchanting world of the circus and the artists that work there.
The sitting man embodies seriousness; the girl embodies playfulness, a contrast that appears in most of Picasso’s works. The colours are also important: the chilling grey of the girl’s bodysuit compensates the pinky tone of the muscular man’s vest. The blue of the towels appears sharply.
If I could ask questions about the picture, there would be many. For example, did the artist have a personal relationship with the models? Is this composition a figment of Picasso’s imagination, or was there really a setting like that? If so, was it spontaneous or arranged?